We've tested and ranked all the cordless stick vacuums from best to worst. CNET names a new champion just in time to make your holiday wish list.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. vacuum cleaner robot
Buy the right vacuum to clean the type (or types) of flooring in your home.
If you have a lot of home to vacuum, you'll want a model with good runtime.
Weight, size and bin capacity
Smaller vacuums are easier to maneuver but they often give up power and bin capacity.
Don't spring for an expensive vacuum without a warranty to back it up.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
Buy the right vacuum to clean the type (or types) of flooring in your home.
If you have a lot of home to vacuum, you'll want a model with good runtime.
Weight, size and bin capacity
Smaller vacuums are easier to maneuver but they often give up power and bin capacity.
Don't spring for an expensive vacuum without a warranty to back it up.
Fact: Every home needs a vacuum. But you don't need to break your budget for a decent one. That's why CNET compiled a complete list of cordless vacuums for every need, from top-of-the-line units with loads of features to high-performing budget options. And keep in mind that with Black Friday deals quickly approaching, this is the best time to start picking up the best gifts this holiday season. Be sure to check out our roundup of the best Black Friday vacuum sales for an in-depth list of the best vacuum savings.
CNET's labs team has been testing cordless stick vacuums for decades, simulating real-life conditions and looking beyond the brand claims and tech specs. We score each cordless vacuum on suction performance, ease of use, battery life, comfort/handling, standout features and value for the price. After weeks of testing, we've crowned a new best cordless vacuum for 2024.
Our brand new top pick for the best cordless vacuum is the LG CordZero A949 , which outperformed the competition during lab testing, bumpinfg our previous top choice — the Tineco Pure One S11 — into second place. The LG CordZero A949 was a clear standout, scoring a 9 (or more) out of 10 in every testing category, including suction performance on carpet and hard floors, ease of use, handling and comfort and extra features and value.
The LED light included on the brush attachment means you can find every speck of dust, and with the most suction power of any cordless vac we tested, it will easily clean messes. When done, simply put the CordZero A949 into its base and not only will it begin charging, but it will also empty the dust bin.
LG's CordZero A949 is a fantastic cordless vacuum with useful accessories and a dock it self-empties into.
LG CordZero A949 is a do-it-all cordless vacuum. It’s packed with high-tech features, such as self-emptying, a Kompressor, Power Mop Pro and more, but don’t let all the buzzwords and impeccable design fool you. In CNET’s testing, it outperformed all other cordless vacuums in every category. It’s also one of the pricier options.
During testing, the LG CordZero A949 suctioned 100% of the black rice from hardwood and mid- and low-pile carpets. Regarding tiny particles of sand, our testing showed that LG’s cordless vacuum picked up nearly 90% of the debris from carpet and hardwood flooring. This can be chalked up to the most powerful suction of all the vacs tested at 265AW and intelligent, automatic suction adjustments.
Aside from the impressive cleaning power, the LG CordZero A949 also has a charging dock that stores the accessories, charges the vacuum and the extra battery, and the base automatically empties the vacuum. The accessories include a crevice tool, an adjustable wand, a power mini nozzle and a combination tool. It also has a power mop attachment with spinning pads to clean up wet messes.
A small but much-appreciated feature of the LG CordZero A949 is that it's free-standing. This means when you need to pick something up that’s in the way of cleaning, you don’t have to lean the vac against something or lay it on the ground.
LG's CordZero A949 is a fantastic cordless vacuum with useful accessories and a dock it self-empties into.
The Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty system is the ultimate cordless solution for powerful, intelligent, whole-home deep cleaning. It features an Auto-Empty dock that charges and empties your vacuum after every clean, reducing dust exposure by 1,000 times compared to traditional emptying. PowerDetect delivers Shark’s most powerful cordless suction along with a redesigned DuoClean Detect nozzle with dirt-detecting intelligence and multidirectional cleaning. Most vacuums push around debris with every backward stroke. The redesigned DuoClean Detect nozzle eliminates this problem by capturing dirt, dust and debris in both forward and reverse motions. PowerDetect offers an impressive 70 minutes of runtime and a MultiFLEX wand for effortless under-furniture reach and flex storage, while Odor Neutralizer Technology guards against bad odors inside your vacuum to help freshen your home. Put it all together, and you’ve got the Shark PowerDetect Clean & Empty system, a powerful and intelligent cleaning solution for your home.
Say hello to the best Dyson cordless vacuum, the Dyson V15 Detect. As the company's flagship cordless model, it's expensive, retailing at $750. Like its predecessor the V11, the V15 ripped through our suite of vacuum cleaner tests with ruthless power and completeness.
The trick up this Dyson's sleeve is the impressive 230 air watts of suction power from the cleaning head, which is 100 air watts more than any Tineco vacuum, and more than you'll get from Samsung vacuums that are even costlier than the V15. That suction translates into performance. Remember how our top pick from Tineco removed 78% of the sand from a mid-pile carpet in our toughest test? The V15 Detect was able to remove 88% in the same challenge, as well as 95% from a low-pile carpet. The V15 is a great cordless vacuum for pet hair too. Whether vacuuming across hardwood floors or low- or mid-pile carpeting, the V15 barely left a tuft in its wake.
Several features set the V15 Detect apart, including its Laser Slim Fluffy cleaner head. Designed for hard floors, it projects a green laser onto the surface as you clean, making it easy to spot dust and small debris that would otherwise be hard to see. It isn't much help under strong indoor lighting or sunlight, but it's still a unique feature that we found helpful as we cleaned. The readout on the back of the vacuum, which lists the ratio of dirt collected by particle size, was also interesting.
a vacuum cleaner Bundled with the vacuum are seven different cleaning attachments. Along with the Laser Slim Fluffy, you'll get a high-torque cleaner head, a hair screw tool and a crevice tool, just to name a few. If budget isn’t a concern and you’re looking for the most powerful cordless vacuum, the V15 is hard to beat.